I would submit that such countries might feel that way even more than anyone else because of such interventions. But even outside of that Venezuela is uniquely dependent because it sells most of its low-grade oil to the US. China hasn't been able get anything out of Venezuela yet.

...on Friday construction began of an $8.3bn refinery in China's Guangdong province able to process 400,000 barrels a day of extra-heavy crude from Venezuela's Orinoco Belt, in a 60/40 joint venture between China National Petroleum Corp and PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company.

But it's not just the Chinese who want to tap into the OPEC country's vast oil riches. In the last week alone, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam have all signed major deals with Venezuela that will help it increase sales to Asian markets and diversify its oil exports away from its biggest client - and ideological enemy number one - the US.

Most impressively, South Korean companies have agreed to participate in infrastructure projects in Venezuela that could be worth more than $11bn.

Interesting reports, but I don't believe it because I have personal experience with this. I've been involved with people in Venezuela's oil industry, and they may talk a good game, but China has yet to receive that much oil from Venezuela despite billions invested there, and is largely abandoning the country. Anyone with oil industry experience has to laughing at those news reports right now. Chavez is a hustler, and he's hustled some of the biggest powers in the world so far. A simple visit to the facilities in Venezuela will show that it's simply not physically possible for China to get the oil that's being reported. Everything is pretty much shut down and in need of parts and repair.

The US is dependent on oil, and it can get it from enemies and allies alike. That's dependency on oil, not on a foreign power.

Yeah, I can't validate it, especially because my experience was courtesy of the government of Venezuela, so I don't submit it as evidence -- just to register my surprise and incredulity at the news reports you cited.

The US has no reason to give up Venezuelan oil. Venezuela is not a threat to the US in any way and hasn't done anything to warrant an embargo of any kind, so the proposition that it cannot give it up remains untested. The Obama administration might also like to give up oil from Texas, which hates Washington right now too, but not doing so does not mean that Texas is not dependent upon Washington for its well being. Venezuela is in a similar category of an otherwise allied country being led at the present time by a person who, like the Tea Party, gets political support by harmlessly haranguing Washington.

In May, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for trading with Iran. The press release states that between December 2010 and March 2011 the PDVSA delivered to Iran at least two cargoes of reformate (i.e. a blending component that improves the quality of gasoline), worth approximately $50 million.

The sanctions prohibit PDVSA from competing for U.S. government procurement contracts, from securing financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and from obtaining U.S. export licenses. However, the sanctions do not apply to PDVSA subsidiaries and do not prohibit the export of crude oil to the United States.

And? The US imposed the same kind of sanctions on a Venezuelan company that it also imposes on other companies that do the same thing. What's your point? It certainly wasn't a violation that should require a general embargo on oil from Venezuela.